Remember the Nikon Coolpix 990,
Coolpix 5700 and Coolpix 8700 digital cameras? They
were prosumer models, referred to that way mainly because
they offered so many enthusiast and professional features,
but in a non-interchangeable zoom lens form factor.
Great cameras. Nikon sold a lot of them. I had a Coolpix
5700 and used it enough to actually wear out the shutter.
Unfortunately, the prosumer market was crushed out
of existence with the appearance of relatively low-cost
digital SLR cameras. The problem is, the need for something
like a prosumer digital camera never really went away.
Lots of casual, hobbyist, enthusiast and amateur photographers
want many of the features and functions of advanced
cameras, but in a package that's very compact and very
automated most of the time. Enter the Nikon Coolpix
P5000.

The
Nikon Coolpix P5000 is a 10 megapixel point & shoot
digital camera featuring fully automatic shooting
modes alongside Shutter priority, Aperture priority
and Manual (sequential aperture and shutter adjustments)
shooting modes to satisfy intermediate, enthusiast
and advanced photographers. The protruding grip design
provides a prominent, rubberized hand grip and upper
rear thumb rest on the right side, a bright 2.5" LCD
on the rear, a top right mounted mode selector
wheel, a mode adjustment thumb wheel on the top
right as well, and a left-center extending zoom
lens assembly on the front. The built-in strobe
flash is powerful enough for most standard indoor
shooting. The camera also features a top left mounted
hot shoe designed to support Nikon's i-TTL flash
control for external flashes including the Nikon
Speedlight SB-400, SB-600 and SB-800. The Nikon
P5000 also offers in-camera Vibration Reduction
(VR) to steady your shot as you press the shutter,
and Nikon's anti-shake technology which combines
high ISO sensitivity with the Best Shot Selection
(BSS) function. Combine all of the foregoing with
the small diameter, high quality lens optics and
you end up with a genuinely powerful little package.
The Nikon P5000 stores image on Secure Digital
(SD) cards and is also fully compatible with the
relatively new Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC)
cards. You can actually shoot temporarily without
an SD card in the slot because the P5000 also has
28MB of internal RAM. If you forget to put an SD
card back in the camera, you'll never again lose
the first few shots. Please don't ask me why I
happened to notice this feature. I'm just lucky
that Nikon is smart.

The Nikon
P5000 is not a casual camera to purchase for work or the
occasional shot of the kids. The P5000 will certainly do
well at work—engineers, architects, builders and
lots of other people will love this one—but the camera
is capable of so much more. Buy the P5000 for vacations,
general travel, trips to the zoo, to record the kids growing
up over the months and years, to satisfy an urge to be creative,
to accompany you on hikes, wandering through urban canyons,
and generally slaking a thirst for photography.

Nikon's excellent
set of VR technologies almost completely eliminates the need for a
tripod when shooting in normal light. As Nikon's VR technology evolves
(in competition with equivalent technologies from the other major
camera makers), it's finding its way into a wide range of cameras.
In long afternoon light, when your shutter is set at 1/60th of a second
and the aperture is wide open, VR allows you to get a sharp shot without
having to break out the tripod—a luxury unheard of up until a
couple of years ago.

Attaching an SB-800
flash to the hot shoe, then mounting the whole assembly on a tripod
and aiming the camera at a slight down angle made me feel as though
the top heavy setup might warp the threaded base at the bottom of
the little camera. I did not detect any damage mind you—the
magnesium body and metal threaded tripod mount are robust and are certainly
designed to handle the weight easily—but one of the comparatively
large SB-600 or SB-800 flash units mounted on the diminutive
P5000 looks slightly comical. The setup worked well though,
indoors and outdoors, so you'll just have to get over the unbalanced
look and appreciate the results in their own right.

The SD card interface
is extremely fast. Throughout the review period we used a 4GB ATP
fast SDHC card. File saving was only limited by the speed of the card.
Pulling data from the camera using the supplied USB cable
was equally fast. The quality of each photo has to be seen to be appreciated.
The 10 megapixel sensor is delightful and the image processor
provides smooth, beautifully detailed shots with excellent color balance
and contrast. Test prints at 13"x19" from our
Epson 2400 were wonderful and there's more than enough resolution
in each shot to do even larger prints. Art and poster
photography anyone?

The Nikon P5000 isn't perfect. I wasn't particularly pleased with the
shutter lag, which is only average for a camera in this class. Power
on/off is very quick, but I think the tiny power button is set too close
to the shutter button. The outer chapter of the lens mount is threaded
to accept Nikon's wide angle adapter and telephoto adapter, but the
front lens barrel itself is not threaded to accept filters. In Nikon's
defense, none of its competition provides filter threads on these kinds
of cameras either. Still, the option to add a screw-on circular polarizer
would open new creative vistas for this type of camera. The viewfinder
is almost useless, except for situations in which bright sunlight is
completely washing out the LCD. Although there is some viewfinder parallax
correction, accurate composition using the viewfinder is very difficult
with close subjects. The LCD view is near-perfect, with very little
display delay, making it clearly superior to the viewfinder in every
way. Battery life is good, but not great. I was able to shoot for a
day and a half (including 25-30 flash shots) before recharging. We fully
drained the battery many times during the review period. Each successive
charge seemed to last longer than the previous one until we hit the
sweet spot/limit of about 240 shots (combined flash and non-flash) per
charge.

The Nikon P5000 is a good looking camera which offers more substance
than style. It looks like a busy, working camera with its slightly retro
black and sliver color scheme. Nikon has thoughtfully provided chromed
metal mounts wide enough to accept full size neck straps, which becomes
very important when you slide a heavy external flash into the P5000's
hot shoe. Obligatory features in this camera class include a 640x480,
30fps movie mode which works quite well. The movie mode won't replace
a dedicated digital video camera, but it will do fine in a pinch. Still
shot scene modes are also standard fare and the P5000 has 16 different
scene-specific settings which are surprisingly good and often more effective
than shooting in one of the priority modes. The P5000 has enough settings,
features and functions to please even the most jaded photography enthusiast.

Cons: The built-in
36-125 mm zoom lens offers lovely quality optics, but unfortunately
no true wide angle. To do true wide angle shooting you'll have to
purchase the Nikon WC-E67 Wide Angle Converter lens. About the only
thing missing from the optional accessories list being offered by
Nikon is an infrared remote control, something which would really
set this camera apart. Nikon's decision to put the zoom
ring concentrically around the large shutter button
means you have to move your finger off the shutter to use the
zoom. Why not use a rocker thumb switch zoom on the
upper right back? Enthusiasts and more serious photographers
won't be confused, but two of our panel of ten testers
thought the anti-shake setting on the mode dial was actually the
VR control. Screw on filter accessories (especially
a circular polarizer), could really help put the P5000 well
ahead of it competition. Even with the relatively small
Speedlight SB-400 mounted in the hot shoe, the P5000 felt
severely unbalanced and required extra handling care.
If you use a large flash unit in the hot shoe, make sure you
also add a neck strap to the camera body and use it. Shutter
lag is average for a camera in this price range. No NEF/RAW
file setting—JPEG only (although
they are beautiful JPEGs, no doubt about it). At our
tested 240 shot maximum per charge (combined flash and
non-flash), it's probably a good idea to purchase a
spare Lithium-ion EN-EL5 battery.

Pros: Really good
things can come in really small packages. The lightweight and extremely
strong magnesium body provides a very solid feel that inspires lots
of confidence. The P5000 generally handles like a dream. The ergonomics
are excellent for small and medium size hands and only slightly less
so for larger hands. The built-in flash has a very sharp mind
of it own apparently, and you will have to deliberately
mess up your settings in order to ruin any shots with this flash.
Load your Nikon Speedlight SB-400, SB-600 or SB-800 on
the hot shoe and the P5000 becomes capable of capturing even
more amazing shots. Panning to follow a moving object in
focus, with an SB-600 set to rear curtain sync, allowed
us to get wonderful motion blur backgrounds with sharp subjects
mainly because of the P5000's fast optics and slick integration
with the advanced flash unit. Dynamic range is excellent
for a camera in this class, and I was able to take some
landscape pictures with bright overcast skies containing lots of detail
without underexposing the darker landscape—scenes almost
identical to those which have absolutely hammered most other
point & shoot cameras. The refurbished and modernized
waterfront in Buffalo, NY is a great place to take pictures
at sunrise, through most of the morning during the Spring
months, and throughout later afternoon during the Spring
as well. I had a blast with P5000 scaring all the gulls,
grabbing wonderful sun soaked shots of the city skyline
and poking around in LaSalle Park. Best of all, I wasn't
lugging my Nikon D200 and a couple of lenses. I'm not trading
my D200 any time soon mind you, but using the P5000 throughout
the review period was a lot of fun. Shooting in Aperture
priority, Shutter priority and manual mode provided almost
as much versatility as I used to squeeze out of prosumer
enthusiast cameras, and that's certainly one of the things
which helps to elevate the P5000. It has some unique and
distinctive settings and certainly reacts to your touch
and settings changes in predictable ways. Definitely a
little camera with a lot of personality that will help
you take good pictures. Highly recommended.